Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

That breeze could scour the frown off of a snowman it’s so strong. Yikes. Not only that but it is bitingly cold to boot. A dangerous mix if you have little ones whom don’t take much care with their exposed skin. Either by not zipping up coats properly, or failing to wear a hat or gloves. It worse splashing about in salt brine puddles to get soaked boots, and frigid wet socks. It’s a perfect storm for bright red cheeks verging on a waxy white, then it goes black from frostbite. It’s a real threat to small kids that don’t seem to take any notice of the weather, or the condition of their bodies until it’s too late. You’ll know once those plump bright red fingers start to thaw, and the burning sensation kicks in. My youngest used to howl in agony at that point. A lesson learned the hard way, as per usual.

Listen bud! I put three pairs of dry gloves in your backpack, and one spare set of mitts. No excuse for numb fingers! You didn’t want to wear your snowpants, and I couldn’t get you to take them into the school with you, so now you have to deal with that decision. I know it sucks. Try to stay out of the snowbanks today. Thanks.

That and other fun ice, cold, rain, weather related arguments happen all the time. Kids! Aren’t they clever. So that’s been my Thursday morning. Also walking the puppy in the windy snow drifts has been an exercise of my patience. I still am unable to tell if he likes the snow but hates the cold, or if he hates both, or loves both. He doesn’t react the same way throughout the day to snow, cold, wind, or anything like that. He’s a complicated puppy ok.

I need to find my boots, and get my snowpants situated by the front door. If the weather continues on like this we are in for a cold, and snow filled winter season this year. Wow. Still too early to guarantee a white, and snowy Christmas morning, but it looks like it could trend that way over the next few days atleast. I saw a random 5°C day on the forecast, but it could be an outlier. I don’t know, I’m no meteorologist!

The holiday party season kicked off last week with US Thanksgiving, so the calendars are filling up as we speak. Lots to do, places to be, and people to see. Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season. Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and Happy New Year to you all to. Ciao Bella

I had a video excerpt queued up for this segment but my phone, in conjunction with this app won’t recognize it, so I’ll have to do some back tracking in my work flow to see where I’ve gone wrong. I might have a button I forgot to toggle, or I’ve moved the file elsewhere during the production phase. No matter. It was a flyby over my war gaming terrain that is also available on IG, and over on YouTube. So some people have seen it. Not many, but a few.

I was thinking that because we are into December I usually start to panic that there was so much I wanted to do during the calendar year, that I start to try and do all of the things now. Or over the course of this month. I write short stories, I sculpt stuff, I work on my resin model kit, play guitar, and try to be in my woodshop, as well as working on tying up loose ends, and completing paid projects so that I can send off my last invoices before years end. This feeling is what lead me to writing on this blog every day, about three years ago. I would have had a hell of a streak except I made a technical error when fixing an old post that was having issues loading photos properly, and then I got discouraged and took my full 16 days of holidays off from here in a fit of rage. No matter. I still write daily, so I’ll consider it an unlikely win anyway.

I have a base with armature ready to go for my next sculpted monster bust. Haven’t come across any designs I’d like to attempt to bring to life. Or I have, but I’m too nervous to try and replicate the thing I was taken by. Playing the guitar more has been loads of fun. I recently took up indoor rock climbing, and that’s lots of fun, but it makes my hands difficult to use afterwards, so in truth I’m not playing as much guitar as I could be, because I physically cannot. Working thumbs, and fingers help alot. Not just for strumming, but working the strings along the fretboard. Kind of important. The resin kit has been stowed away since last spring. I can pick that up at any point in the near future. I’m still prepping, sanding, and priming the pieces. Long ways to go yet on that bad mother. I also have a HellBoy painting drawn up ready for paint. I just need to commit some time to getting on it. I think I need a new titanium white paint bottle, and that’s why I haven’t started. I think. I might try it as a water colour on paper afterwards too. Maybe dabble in some coloured pencils along with the water colours. I’ve seen that used to great effect recently. Very inspiring.

I stopped playing Diablo four a few weeks ago because work really picked up quite a bit, and I just didn’t have time for it. I’ve gone back to it once, maybe twice in the last four weeks. I think I’m nearing the end of Act III, but who really knows. They have the next expansion out already, so I know for a fact that it just keeps on going. I’ve had some fun with it. Maybe I’ll give Gears of War Emergence Day a try when that launches, or try a hand at Space Marines 2, since I actually finished the first one for the Xbox 360, nearly 11 years ago.

It is currently snowing, and I need to eat some breakfast. Happy Hump Day, Wednesday,  middle of the week day to you all. Ciao Bella.

Took the wee lad to his first puppy traing session last night, and other than loud whining towards the end because he was bored, and had disengaged, he did very well. Lots of sitting, recalls, eye contact, soft hand bumps with his nose, and one other item I don’t remember right now. He was the largest, and oldest puppy there by a wide margin, but he wasn’t a spaz or a terror to the four other teenie tiny puppies that were 5 or so months old. He deserved all the treats which he earned.

What this means for me is, is that for the next six weeks my Mondays are going to be very busy, filled with additional driving. Which all told, I’m not too keen on, but given how much room we had available to us, I could bring the whole family, or one of the kids to come and learn what they should be doing with the dog when we do our training sessions.

As we get ever closer to the winter equinox the temperatures around here will continue to plummet. I see snowpants, boots, gloves, and thermal underwear in my immediate future. I had hopes of going climbing today, but that might have to wait until tomorrow, or Saturday. If I don’t get to climbing by Wednesday then I have to wait for Saturday because my hands, and forearms need time to heal inbetween heavy exertions. I’m getting old that way. Physical activity, strenuous physical activity exacts it’s toll on me. I must heed that warning or risk injury. A fact of life for people my age.

I did a bit of digging yesterday after I sorted out my Q3 HST payment, and discovered that I am in fact 1/5th shy of what I did last year at this point. So unless I have an absolutely inhuman December I will fall short of last years huge successes. Not as far behind as I once feared, but by enough that I can feel it, and see the results financially. I was worried I would only achieve 50% of last years numbers, and had a very dismal outlook on things, but to know I’ll do 4/5ths of that year is better than I had feared. So not destitute, but not exactly rolling in it either. I should try to land one more larger corporate client, someone with money to spend on quality, but isn’t looking for a massive quantity of projects. Or, and hear me out here, I need to sell some custom furniture projects to fill in the gaps, or take on some minor traditional sculpting commissions. I’m open to either, but I’d rather just get more paid work and leave the side hustles to others, and just enjoy my hobbies, as, you know, hobbies. I like to be busy, but I hate to be run off my feet.

I should probably double check my math by starting my tax documents in Excel sooner rather than later. I don’t know how much I trust my back of a napkin math at this point. It’s not much fun, but I can usually get it sorted with one 8 hour day, and a whole bunch of typing! Also, sorting, highlighting, and entering in data from receipts isn’t my idea of a good time. I suppose I could open a document, and start things off now. We’ll have to see about that. Ciao Bella.

Typically I’d wait for tax time and then pay out both my HST, and my income tax all in one (painful) chunk, but given that last year they implemented a fine for doing just that I’ve started to pay quarterly. Which takes smaller bites out now, but may get me a few dollars in refund if my accountants adjustments work in my favour, if not, at least that portion is paid up already, and all I have to cover is my income tax portion. That’s a win. It also stops me from accidentally using the HST collected as my own money, and digging a hole for myself. Now that it goes out  quarterly I can’t use those funds to pad my accounts. I guess it’s better this way. Sad to see those dollars leave, but on the upside less of a pinch come April!

Paying HST also means I made money, and that’s a good thing. I’m thankful for the work I’m afforded. While I do not believe I will beat last year, I don’t think that I will be as far behind that leaderboards topper year as I once feared. I need to double check, I could be way off. Accounting/book keeping was never my forté. I’m slow at it, and I find it tedious. I’d rather be designing or making production pieces for somebody else’s campaign. I like artwork creation, and not number crunching.

It is Monday once again. I can do even more laundry if I want too. Can run the dishwasher if I felt like it, which… you know what? I do, I do feel like it. I’d like to have clean knives, and a clean plate for lunchtime. Even after several loads of laundry yesterday the kids have more clothes lying around, or in their mother’s hamper. The clothing situation around here is too much, too crazy. Too many articles between the two of them. My wife’s hangers are falling apart in her closet, and we can hardly squeeze the kids clothes into their closets they are so damn full. It’s kind of ridiculous. Ugh! Queue up yet another round of purges, and closet cleansings. A good old fashioned room cleaning would go a long way for all three of them! My room is getting full because I hide the Christmas gifts in there. But come December 26th, it’ll be back to normal, and all the cardboard will have gone out in the recycling. I do need to wash my comforter though, where the dog sleeps at the bottom of my bed that part is absolutely covered in black dog fluff, and atleast one dirty paw print that I’ve seen.

I need to send my last few Christmas gifts and call it a day on the festive shopping. I’ve got a scheduled HST payment going out, so I have to be more careful this month. Plus my eldest has her Taekwondo fees coming up again next week to cover off the next three months, and the blue belt test, and on, and on it goes.

Welcome to December, and the little bit of snow that came along with it. Certainly feels more festive with a dusting of white snow on the roof tops, trees, and lawns. If the snow could just stay off the roads, and all of our driveways it would be perfect! Very picturesque. So here’s hoping for a gentle winter, and a white Christmas full of joy, cheer, family, and friends. Ciao Bella.

Along with the lightest dusting of early morning snow to punctuate the moment. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. Just a couple of family birthdays to commemorate first. It’s a very busy month filled with family parties, events, travel, and work projects. I love this time of year. Now I can start to wrap Christmas presents and not feel as though I am jumping the gun.

We recently discovered our puppy’s actual birthday, and it isn’t in early January, but December 8th. He’s nearly a year old! A week today and he can celebrate with the whole family. I wonder if he’ll hate candles like our last dog. Don’t know if it was the singing of happy birthday to him, the candles, the smoke, or the added attention but our previous puppy hated all of it. Or was scared of it, atleast. Wasn’t a fan.

Today is my eldest brother’s birthday. I believe he is turning 51 this year. Soon after my older daughter will turn ten. Double digits! Where did that decade go? Zoom-zoom, right passed us that’s where. Then there are various other aunts, uncles, and cousins from the extended family with birthdays in December also. Going to be a busy month. School concerts, holiday gatherings, family parties, birthday parties, winter break festivities, you name it, we’ll be at all of them. Or most of us will be at all of them. Hard to say since our schedules are full, and the dog won’t be able to go to every outing. But, we will manage I’m sure.

So Sunday Funday, what to do with the day? Football? Meal prep? Getting ducks in a row for tonight’s meeting with the board for the non-profit I sit on. Should I wrap gifts while the kids are walking the dog at the farm with their mum? Listen to music? Karaoke? Or all of the above whilst I wrap gifts and watch Christmas movies next to the tree. I suspect we will have to go and do even more leaves at the inlaws. Loaded a full trailer’s worth yesterday evening. Could fill two more trailers of the same size atleast before you are done. And we load them by tarp fulls, not bags or garbage cans. A whole 8x10ft tarp just loaded to the tits with wet heavy leaves, sticks, and grass clippings.

Turns out I’m just going to get a jump on Domestic Duties Monday, by doing/sorting laundry, vacuuming the floors, tidying up the living room, cleaning the tub, and loading the dishwasher. If I get that done now I can wrap gifts tomorrow infront of the tv without feeling like I’m slacking around the house. Happy first day of December 2024! Ciao Bella.

A good portion of my business contacts are in the US, so this week has been pretty quiet. I had one email late tuesday night, and one other email exchange yesterday. I would be surprised to have more than one today aswell. Not to mention today being Black Friday, a shopping spectacle for a lot of people, which means they aren’t in the office, or reviewing standing projects. No problem. I can handle a quiet friday with my puppy. I did think I was going to get a new report in today, but tomorrow afternoon works too. Or Monday, whichever works for those signing the cheques. I’m easy.

It is a rather chilly minus seven today. A particularly cold walk for the dog this morning. Boy am I glad the new vehicle has a remote starter, heated seats, and a warming steering wheel. It’s quite lovely. Very toasty! I’m hoping to not have much on the docket this weekend. Oh we will definitely go rock climbing, and make our hands, and forearms go numb. But beyond that, I’m not interested in seeing people, hosting, or interacting in any way, shape or form. I feel overly tired. Staying up too late watching Reacher with my wife. Solid show, but we don’t start it until 10pm, and if we do a double header I’m not into bed until nearly midnight. And I’m feeling exhausted because of it. Still, it’s a good show though. I appreciate the couch cuddle time with my wife though.

I spent the morning drawing up my months invoices, and sending those out. Truth be told I sent a couple yesterday, because two were requested asap. No problem! I’m expecting two, or three more reports before the new year starts, so I’ll have lots to do in December if things move along as planned. But I won’t get upset if one gets bumped to January instead. I’d prefer more work get done now, but having jobs lined up for the new year is not a bad thing. Takes some of the stress out of potential lull periods if I know I can break it up with one, or two paid gigs in the middle of it. Three individual three week lulls is better than one eleven week long down period if you ask me. Just means I can get a lot of cleaning done, and organize the house after the winter break with the kids home all day. I can indulge in longer dog walks, and take my time with lots of snow shoveling to keep the house free of ice jams, backed up eaves troughs, and potential flood threats. I treated myself to both a new metal shovel, and an industrial ice scraper for the driveway. I only pray we don’t have too many dumpings of snow that are over six inches in depth at one time. We had nearly 17 inches one time during the Covid lock down months, and that very nearly killed me. A run away heart beat made me tingle, not in a good way. It was too much. But we don’t get that kind of action every year so I haven’t spent the money on a snowblower just yet. With all of the bikes, benches, tables  and tools, I don’t have anywhere I can store something that large which won’t put it in everybody’s way 90% of the time. It’s a purchase I wrestle with constantly. Mainly for the bottom of the driveway where the town piles up a four foot tall wall of heavy, wet, partially melted ice after I’ve cleared my drive already. Followed by having to do the back patio because it wants to drain into the basement via the windows if I don’t.  I don’t want a thirty six incher, but a twenty four inch wide snowblower would fit through the back gate, I believe, and would cut down my back breaking labour by more than half. Would have to be an electric start, as I can’t be putting my shoulder out tugging on an icy cold pull start RIP cord. See, now I have conditions, and requirements on the purchase. Before you know it I’m buying handle warmers, a wind shield, automated blower direction changer for the stack, and chains for the tires, on and on.

We had the first very light dusting of snow last night, so the streets were brined, and the parking lots salted in anticipation of an impending storm. It’ll be December in one more day, so just about the right time for it. I guess it’s technically still the fall until the twenty first or something like that. But winter is on the cusp of making itself known.

Ok, enough from me. Hope you are all well. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

And they aren’t even the standard nice rims that come with the vehicle’s summer tires either. Whoo boy! It’s a looker. Now to keep it clean, and record any/all maintenance done with it over the next decade. I’ll need to source the correct coolant, break fluid, engine oil, cabin & oil filters, transmission fluid, and extra bulbs for the lights. They gave us the appropriate socket for the lug nuts thankfully, so I’ll make a note of that. I’ll also need to note the make & model of the winter tires for storage retrieval purposes. Lots to stay on top of.

In other news I have a heated steering wheel now. Plus I don’t have to use my wife’s car if I want to listen to my own music anymore. Blue tooth connectivity! I also want to go pick up some air fresheners, and a small garbage bin/bag combo for the vehicle. I absolutely do not want the kids to treat it like a gods be damned toilet like they did the previous van, and my wife’s current SUV. So messy. My kids are slovenly. Just no respect for property at all. Just none. Food gets dropped, wrappers go everywhere, drink containers left to mould over once consumed. A mess. Yuck.

But, now we can travel to the cottage with space to breathe, and the dog has room to lie comfortably, and we have 4X the room for taking stuff up north with us. Mini Vans may not be sexy, or cool, but by god do they offer comfort, and space! I like it, I like it alot.

So now it is Thursday, which is US Thanksgiving. So there should be football on today. No NHL games, but plenty of pig skin. Which makes tomorrow Black Friday! The most terriblest shopping day of the year, next to Christmas Eve, and Boxing Week Sales, and New Year’s Eve clearance sales. It’s a whole thing. I’m waiting on one more Christmas present, and one additional birthday present to arrive, and I’m just about done. Yippee! Just about, but not entirely as they say.

Besides Planes, Trains and Automobiles I can’t seem to find any quality Thanksgiving themed movies that don’t belong to the Hallmark channel of extruded cheese. I want a real film, not low budget porn quality production value. SNL sometimes has a good compilation show from various years for specific holidays, but it’s not a consistent through line for a story. Also, not interested in Thanksgiving themed slasher flicks, as that’s not my cup of tea.

You know what I finally got around to watching the last couple of days, both Nope, and Alien Romulus. The Alien film I thoroughly enjoyed, the “horror” film Nope was a bit of a let down if you ask me. So much of it was too dark visually, I couldn’t see anything. Glad I had the sub titles on as they let me know what was supposed to be going on. It wasn’t bad, per se, but it felt like a long way around to nothing. Empty. I’m certain there was an animal cruelty element in there too, but that was more entertaining atleast. The stuff with the horse Lucky, and the Chimp Gordy. The chimp stuff could have been a very compelling movie of it’s own. Super eerie.

Happy US Thanksgiving to all whom observe. Ciao Bella!

Things have not transpired as smoothly as one would wish when buying a new vehicle. Our pick-up date has moved three times, and the kids are getting restless for the new wheels. It had to wait longer than expected at a sealant place, then they had to wait for snow tires, then another bump for the rims for the snow tires, and a chance to swap them over onto the new van. I was supposed to go climbing today, but I guess I still could go with my wife’s car, but it’s not the same. Ha. Plus I had a late email with a time sensitive ask, so I need to stay on top of that right now.

Not only that but I need to clean out my wife’s car, as the girls have littered it with toys, and junk. Not to mention a fair amount of garbage. Needs to be vacuumed out, and wiped down pretty extensively. Maybe not as bad as the van, but it’s still kinda awful inside the back row of seats. My wife stores old Girl Guides activities loosely in the far back, trunk area, so that requires some seeing to aswell. Not an organized machine my girls. Not in any way, shape or form.

I’m having a hard time concentrating because our very loud dishwasher is going at the moment. Glad it’s halfway done by now. I turned it on before doing both drop off, and the dogs farm walk. I didn’t want to have to hear it for a full two hours from all four corners of our tiny house. But, on the bright side I’ll have dishes, and bowls to eat off of once again, and utensils to eat with! Yeah! Bonus.

Traffic was back to its regular self today, no massive line ups at all of the four way stops. Not sure if there was a road closure yesterday, or an accident on some major artery, but the increased traffic was madness. Glad it isn’t always like that around here. It was brutal. I do not miss commuting, traffic jams, and other people at all.

The bulk of our Christmas gifts arrived the other day, so I can begin to wrap them at my leisure. I was going to get some things myself, but I’ll just pass my wife some money so that she can buy what she needs, and actually get the right item. If we order it through School Cash the kids classes get a kick back as part of the fundraising efforts. Win-win. My wife gets the specific thing she wants, and the kids school gets some money from it too. Pencils, paper, and books for most of them!! Yeah buddy.

The plan is for my wife to finally grab the new vehicle later today. Which means I’m out playing chauffeur for the kids and all of the programming this evening. Well, probably not ALL of it, but let’s say atleast half. Will need to set an alarm to make sure I go get the youngest after dropping her off! Whoopsie daisy. Anyway, I need to go assemble some flat pieces into an isometric render of a retail display. Ciao Bella!

Looking forward to starting my day, it has been a slow moving morning. Lots of additional traffic on the tenth line for some reason. The trek to the farm which usually takes twelve minutes took nearly twenty five today. It was lined up at every single stop sign. Didn’t help that some fool was trying to make the jagged intersection at nineteenth into a four way stop, which it isn’t.  That was cool. I guess. Good way to get rear ended around these parts. I used my car horn for the first time in years while driving. Which was oddly satisfying, but I shan’t make a habit of it.

I have some paid work to go and dig into, so I won’t keep here long. Our walk at the farm was a wet, and drizzly one. I had to grab the van’s summer tires for the trade in happening either today, or later this week. Everything takes extra time, and more money, by the sound of it. I paid for the first 2/3 rds of my Christmas shopping Visa bill last night, and – Ouch! Aye carumba! That was hard on the old wallet. I have four folks left to cover off and I’m done, so that’s a silver lining atleast.

Enough waivering, I best get down to business. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!